HomeMy WebLinkAbout12 20 1989 Truce is Sought From More Suits Over City AirportTruce Is Sought 9
From More Suits
Over CityAirport
By A
MIKE SE MBORA with a 90 percent grant from the
Press -Journal Staff Writer Federal Aviation Administration,
A temporary truce may be fivepercent state match and five
called in the lawsuit over Sebas- percent city money.
tian's airport.
A voluntary mediation attemp
Monday failed to resolve any o
the substantive issues,.
but both sides agreed to
consider putting off fur-
ther court battles until
after a proposed airport
planning -'study is com-
pleted.
If the city and plain-
tiff Burt Snell do agree
to put the suit on hold,
it could delay further
court action for ' 15
months or longer. S
"Absolutely, I would character-
ize this as a step forward," Sebas-
tian City Manager Robb McClary
said.
Snell did not return several
phone calls.
The proposed $200,000 study
would be directed at looking at
the best ways the airport and
community could co -exist, McC-
lary said. Recommendations from
the study may well resolve some
of the substantive disagreements
over the airport.
A contract for the study could
be awarded as early as March,
McClary said, while the study
itself is expected to take about a
year.
The idea is to fund the study
t
f
McClary said he would individ-
ually call all city .councilmen and
poll them on their support of the
proposal, and the city
attorney would have to
draft a stipulated
agreement to hold the
suit in abeyance.
McClary said Snell
» would be given a
chance to go over the
agreement before it
went before the council
for official action.
Snell said he is will -
ell ing to consider the idea
at Monday's mediation attempt
between McClary, city airport
attorney Nick Tsamatoules, Snell
and his attorney, Burney Carter.
One part of Snell's suit seeks to
force .the city to use its general
revenue fund to reimburse the
airport fund for more than $100,-
000 in legal fees involving the air-
port.
McClary said the city is still
completely at odds with Snell
over that point and thinks it was
Proper to use airport funds to pay
the legal fees and expenses. The
two sides still disagree over
Snell's attempt to get a declarato-
ry judgment that the charter
amendments which precipated
the suit were unconstitutional.
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